Behold The Lamb Of God

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen. Our beloved Fathers, Deacons, Nuns, Faithfuls, all of you are in this Holy Church, present and those who are watching us for live streaming, may the Almighty Jesus Christ of Nazareth bless you, guide you, protect you, and deliver you from the snares of the enemy, whether it be visible or invisible. Amen.

We thank the Lord. The Gospel of today is from the Gospel according to Saint John chapter 1 and verses 29 to 42 inclusive. So it's John chapter 1 and verses 29 to 42 inclusive.

Every time we come to read the Gospel according to Saint John, we are approaching the depth of theology. We are approaching the depth of theology. The language of the Gospel of John is totally different to the other three synoptic Gospels being Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

When you read Matthew, Mark, and Luke and then you come to read John, the Beloved's Gospel, you'll think there is something wrong here. It is totally different language, totally different, different, different structure. Reason being because the Gospel according to Saint John is talking about the divinity of Christ.

John the Beloved is introducing the Lord Jesus to the entire world. He is writing to the whole world and he's saying to the whole world that this Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom I was an eyewitness, one of the 12 eyewitnesses, one of the 12 apostles appointed by him, chosen by him. I lived with him for over three years.

I saw him every single day. I traveled with him every single day. I heard him speak every single day.

I watched him do wonders and miracles every single day right before my own very physical eyes and I'm saying to the whole world after being an eyewitness to Jesus Christ of Nazareth, world listen to this good news. God has finally visited this earth. Heaven has embraced this earth.

The person I saw, the human I met, embraced is God revealed in the flesh. The very creator of us, of everything that is visible and invisible, God revealed in the flesh. John the Beloved is talking about the divinity of Christ.

So when you speak about the divinity, how do you approach it? It's very different. Today, John the Baptist, John the Baptist is being confronted by some priests and Levites. Levites like deacons of the new testament, like deacon George.

Come here George, deacon George. I'm gonna put him on the spot and make his face go red like a tomato. So Levites are this beautiful deacon.

Priests are like stunning, good-looking father George. Thank you deacon. He was so scared, he got stuck like a statue here.

He couldn't move, said I'm troubling you. So Levites are deacons of the new testament. Priests obviously are the same priest of the new testament, however it's the priesthood of the Lord Jesus, much more powerful.

So John the Baptist was approached by priests and Levites, sent by the Sanhedrin council, the elders or the 70 elders of the Israelite nation. They said go and ask him, this could be the Messiah. And then in the gospel of today it says, and it was the pharisees who sent these priests and Levites.

Now pharisees my beloved, the Israelite nation is made out of three main groups. There is the priests, there is the scribes, and there is the pharisees. This is the Israelite nation.

Anyone outside of these three groups is not considered a genuine Israeli. So they had to be either from the group of priests, scribes, and pharisees. Pharisees were the ones who would check everything under the microscope.

Everything needed to be scanned, everything needed to be checked once, twice, three times, and 10 million zillion times. They were literal people to the core, and everything had to be really looked at extremely close. Very literal people, and literal people are very difficult to deal with.

We have, unfortunately, in the New Testament church, Christendom, we have very literal people till this very day. A literal person is an over-saved person. Have you ever come across an over-saved? Like too much saved.

Like whatever you say, you will say, Jesus Christ, Hallelujah. Relax, man. Just like when I have a fish burger with you, man, just relax, please.

I always mention this, an over-saved person is the, imagine you with this person at McDonald's. I don't know why I promote McDonald's, they have to pay me now. You know, and you say, I'm hungry.

The over-saved guy will say, Jesus said, I am the living bread who descended from heaven. Whoever eats me shall never hunger again. Okay.

Oh, I'm really thirsty, man. Jesus said, I am the living waters. Whoever drinks me shall never thirst again.

I lost my car keys. Jesus said, you need the keys to enter the kingdom of heaven. Listen, mate, I don't drive a kingdom.

I can't fit it in my garage. Relax. That's an over-saved.

They send the priests and the Pharisees to see whether this John the Baptist is the Messiah himself. So they came and said, are you the Messiah? Because one of the signs when the Messiah comes, he will baptize with water and the Holy Spirit. And John said, without denying, I am not the Messiah.

Are you the prophet? When you read the prophet, not a prophet, the, T-H-E, the prophet. The prophet means when the Messiah comes prior to his coming, his coming will be preceded by a prophet that will come to lay everything straight, the path straight. So are you the prophet? He said, no.

Are you Elijah? No. Then who are you? What gave you that authority to come and baptize and talk? He said, I'm not the Messiah. I am the voice crying out in the wilderness because there is someone standing in the midst of you whom you do not know, whom you do not know.

You asked me, are you the Messiah? And I replied and I said, no. And I'm not going to say only no. I am not only not the Messiah, but I am not worthy to undo his shoelace.

I'm not only not the Messiah, but I am not worthy to undo his shoelace because I'm not worthy to even touch his shoelace. The message of today's gospel, two things. One, John the Baptist is calling every single one of us to the knowledge of God.

And two, he is calling us to be unworthy in the presence of God. John the Baptist is calling us to the knowledge of God. Come and get to know God.

And secondly, come and stand in his holy presence and cry out and say, I am not worthy, Lord. Not worthy. Because John the Baptist said to them, he said, there is this person who came after me, who precedes me, and he's standing in the midst of you, yet you do not know him.

Knowledge. You do not know him. The knowledge of God.

How do we get to know God? How? Can we get to know God? Yes. So how? It begins with being unworthy to undo your shoelace, Lord. Unworthy.

What is unworthy? Unworthy means I am nothing, Lord, and you're everything. I'm coming to you, Lord, saying I don't deserve to be in your holy church. I don't deserve to be called your son.

I don't deserve to be called a Christian. I don't deserve to be chosen by you. I don't deserve absolutely nothing.

I am unworthy from head to toe. I come with absolute humility. The key to knowing God is self-denial.

And what is self-denial? Humility. What is humility? I am not worthy, Lord. When I eat the food which is placed on that table at home, I am not worthy of eating this food.

It is you, Lord, who blessed me with it. Because there are people, as we speak, are sleeping, starving to death. I'm not worthy, Lord, to dress up in so many different colors that there are people don't have one piece of cloth to cover themselves with.

I'm not worthy, Lord, to be healthy because there are so many people laying on their back in those hospital beds and nursing homes and God knows where else. I'm not worthy, Lord. I'm not worthy, Lord, to be in the church sitting and listening to your word.

I'm not worthy, Lord. Whatever I do, whatever I have done, whatever I will do later on, I am not worthy. It is all you, Lord.

It is all you, Lord. Everything of good nature, everything that comes of good intention, it is Jesus Christ of Nazareth done by him and him only. I preached and I brought thousands and millions of people to you.

I'm not worthy because it is you, Lord, not me. I built a church but I'm not worthy because you are the one who built it, not me. I prayed for someone and got healed.

I prayed on someone and got healed but it's you, Lord. I'm not worthy. When, when as Christians are we going to come with this heart, with this mind, with this thought? When? I'm not worthy, Lord.

You people came, asked me, are you the Messiah? Are you kidding? Just because you saw certain signs from John the Baptist that you thought it was the Messiah? Yet you know what? At this moment, John the Baptist was at his peak with absolute success, glory, exaltation by the Israelite nation. He was highly respected by the entire Israelite nation. They regarded him as the man of God.

If John the Baptist had taken this golden opportunity, and only comes once in a lifetime, if he had taken this golden opportunity and said to them, yes, I am the Messiah, they would have taken him on board and worshipped him, end of story. But from the highest level of success, from the highest level of exaltation and glory, honor, respect, he humbled himself to the lowest level of all and said, I am not only not the Messiah, but I'm not worthy to even touch the shoelace of his feet. Wow, wow.

Now this is what you call a true genuine servant of God, a true genuine servant of God, where he was so highly exalted, he humbled himself from head to toes and said, I'm not worthy to undo his shoe, the laces of his shoes. The most difficult thing any one of us get to learn, get to overcome is humility, the most difficult. We think we are humble, but when the time comes to be put to the test, we fail miserably.

We fail miserably. We think we are humble. You know, somebody might come and they come at a time when I'm in a good mood, right? So they say, Oh, you're a holy man.

You're so faithful. I wish I was like you. And then I'll say, Oh no, please.

You know, I'm nothing because I was having a good day. You know, I'm in a good mood. No, please don't say this.

I'm a sinner. I'm nothing. I'm not worthy.

Someone else comes and tells me off. All hell breaks loose. What? What did he just say? You? What happened? He just said, you're humble.

You're a sinner. So why are you upset? Somebody called you a sinner. Easy said than done.

Humility is not just something you preach or something you sing. Humility, you need to live. How can he accept? How can he accept that you are in the right and they have deprived you from your right and you keep your silence and you keep your peace? Now that's humility.

How can you keep your peace? I'll tell you how you keep your peace. When Jesus Christ rules over your life, that's the only way. When do I get to have the Lord ruling over my life? The beginning, please pay attention.

The beginning, you're not living it fully yet. The beginning to Jesus Christ ruling over your life, that beginning begins with the Lord breaking you and me. He needs to break us.

It is impossible for the Lord to rule over our life unless he breaks us first. Impossible. He needs to break us.

He needs to break us, my beloved. I was saying this in an interview and I don't hold it against them because they have a lot to learn. I said when a person that has fallen so deep and so far in this world, when a person that has gone so distant from the Lord Jesus and saw the darkness, tasted that darkness, when someone was so far and so deep in sin, lived a sinful life and the Lord comes, touches that heart and then bring that person out of that sinful life, out of that darkness, out of the deep and bring them into the light, into holiness, I can tell you my dear friend, this person will love Jesus Christ much greater than the one who was always in the light.

I was misunderstood. See, the spiritual life, it's not, I read a couple of passages like so many do nowadays. Today, Christian preachings, I call it kindergarten level, maybe not even because little kids playing around.

Everyone thought that it is okay and it is normal and it is so easy. I'll just sit behind the desk, I'll put a couple of books behind my back and I'll put a camera and I'll start preaching and I'll say, this is what the Lord wants. Excusez-moi.

Hello, little kids playing. No wonder you are destroying yourselves and destroying so many who are falling for this deception. To talk about the Lord, you know, some people will come and say, Jesus preached.

Okay, and Saint Paul says, if I don't preach, woe unto me, I'm in deep trouble because Jesus preached, Saint Paul preached, therefore I have to preach. Are you Saint Paul or the Lord? Are you? Seriously, are you? Listen, do you know what Jesus did and how Jesus lived? I'm talking about the man, the perfect man. Oh my goodness, if the greatest, if the greatest born of the women, of a woman says, I'm not worthy to undo his shoelace, the greatest born of a woman, a testimony given to John the Baptist by Jesus Christ of Nazareth himself, God revealed in the flesh, God revealed in the flesh, Jesus Christ says, John the Baptist is the greatest born of a woman.

But Jesus is born of a virgin woman. No one shares Jesus. Yeah, the greatest born of a woman, what does he say? I'm not worthy to undo his shoelace.

Where do I or all of us go from John the Baptist, let alone from Jesus Christ of Nazareth? And this is what I want to get to, to talk about the Lord Jesus. It's not I read a few books, I listened to a few lectures, or I even went to a theological school and I studied and I received a PhD in theology. I have a doctorate in theology, I'm a theologian, I'm a scholar, I'm this, I'm that, all of this is good.

But my dear friend, let me tell you one thing, all of this you will not know who Jesus Christ is until the day comes you become those two disciples of John the Baptist who followed the Lord Jesus. You'll never understand with all of your PhDs, you'll never understand. John the Baptist was standing with two of his disciples and then the Lord was passing by, and then he looks at the Lord Jesus and he said, behold the Lamb of God.

The two disciples heard their teacher say this about the Lord, behold the Lamb of God. So they leave John the Baptist and follow the Lord Jesus. One of them happened to be Saint Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, one of the 12 apostles of the Lord Jesus.

So Saint Andrew was the disciple of John the Baptist before he became the apostle of Jesus Christ. He was the disciple of John the Baptist. So they went, followed the Lord.

This is when you begin to talk about the Lord. So the Lord stops, turns around and says, what are you seeking? They said, we want to know where you stay. He said, okay, come and see where I stay.

And the Holy Bible says it was about the 10th hour. Now who is the author of the Holy Bible? God, the Holy Spirit, God himself. God, the Holy Spirit is the source of wisdom.

So when God talks, we need to pay attention. When God mentions something, every single thing, big or small, has meaning. There's a meaning behind it.

And the Holy Spirit revealed to John the Beloved to write, it was around the 10th hour. These two disciples went. Now what is the 10th hour? These are all Jewish prayer hours.

The ninth hour is 3 p.m. equivalent of our time, 3 p.m. The 11th hour is 5 p.m. The 10th hour, 4 p.m. So what are you trying to say, John the Beloved here? It was around the 10th hour. What happened at the ninth hour, which is 3 p.m.? Jesus Christ of Nazareth, all glory to His Holy Name, dies on the cross in the flesh. He dies on the cross in the flesh.

What happened at 11th, at the 11th hour, 5 p.m., He was brought down from the cross, because Sabbath, Shabbat, Sabbath was approaching. Until this very day, our beloved Jews don't work on Sabbath. They're breaking the law.

If they do, they're breaking it. And when does Sabbath begin? 6 p.m. Friday to 6 p.m. Saturday, that's Sabbath. This is the day of God, begins from an evening.

At 3 p.m., the ninth hour, the Lord dies in the flesh. At 5 p.m., He is hanging on the cross and about to be brought down. They were there around the 10th hour, which is 4 p.m. The heart of the Lord being dead.

What does that mean? I asked you, disciples of John the Baptist, what are you seeking? You said to me, we want to see where you are, where you stay. He said, come and see where I stay. I stay where there is death.

And what is death in the biblical terminology? Self-denial, because when I die, you will see me no longer. I do not exist anymore in this realm, true or not. The moment I die, I am no longer in this world.

I don't exist. So what is death, biblically speaking? Self-denial. What is self-denial? Humility.

What is humility? I am not worthy to undo his shoelace. And what is humility? Standing in the presence of the Lord, confessing I'm not worthy. When the Lord Jesus was approached by so many people, he said to them, it is not he who says, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven.

It is the one who does the will of my father. The will of my father. I came to do the will of my father.

I came to do the work which my father sent me to do, and I came to fulfill it. And I have everything the Lord Jesus said, everything the Lord Jesus did, every step he took, every move he made, every word he uttered, everything he did, he did it all for his father. Nothing for himself.

Jesus lived the perfect, the perfect, the perfect life of self-denial. This is the secret of this man. It is not because he is God, he raised the dead.

It is not because he is God, he healed the sick and cast out demons and did wonders and miracles. The mystery, the secret of Jesus Christ's power, his absolute 100% obedience to his heavenly father. When you and I can be like Jesus, the perfect man, when we become 100% obedient to God the father, like Jesus was, we will do exactly the same thing Jesus did on earth.

Yet we're not. Why? Because we haven't reached that perfect self-denial. One thing somebody says to me, I get upset, I get offended, I get angry, I retaliate.

How dare you? I'll break you, I'll smack you. We haven't reached. So you want to know where I stay? I stay at the cross.

You want to share the cross? You want to share my death? You want to share my self-denial? Come, I'll teach you. This is when we begin to get to know God. When we die, when we die to our old self, in order to get to know the new self called Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the fullness of the knowledge of God.

Why is Jesus Christ the fullness of the knowledge of God? Because he is the Logos. Because John the Baptist said, I am the voice and what precedes the word is the voice. I'm talking to you words, can you see them? No.

What do you hear? The voice of the word. This is the nature of the word. The word naturally cannot be seen initially, can only be heard.

This is the nature of the word. It can only be heard first when you hear the word and then you willingly choose to accept the word. The word will reveal himself to you, not you to him.

It is God who teaches you about him and the only way God will teach you about him and tell you and show you secrets of him when you say along with John the Baptist, even though I'm standing in your holy church, in your holy presence, Lord Jesus, I am not worthy to undo your shoelaces, Lord. Have mercy on me, I the sinner. Wow, wow, wow.

In English, ouch, ouch. In Aussie accent, oy, oy, aye, aye. My beloveds, when the Lord Jesus touches our heart, a tiny little touch, we change so much.

Before I used to get angry and upset about anything and everything, now I let go. My wife has been nagging me all day and I'm still cool. Before I would have smashed everything in the house.

She's been going like a formula one at me all day and I'm saying, I love you, baby. What happened to you? It's the Lord. It's the Lord.

Before when I lost my job, I lost my temper. Now I lost my job. I'm still cool as a cucumber.

It's the Lord. It's the Lord. But we need to let him work.

We need to let him in. We need to allow him to transform us, change us. It's the Lord.

I wish I had more time. I was telling a story this morning and during the holy mass service this morning, which is in Assyrian. And this is a true story.

I probably would have shared it with you maybe previously. And it's a true story. There are people on earth, they are seen mighty to the rest of the world.

They are seen holy to the rest of the world. They are seen some influential figures for the world. But in the next world, in the next life, they won't be that much seen in the eyes of God.

And there are people on earth who are absolutely ignored, not interested in, not even worthy to say hi to them. But in the eyes of God, they are mighty saints in the next life. So the story, the true story goes this way.

There was this very famous preacher in this particular country, which I keep unknown. A very famous preacher in this particular country. They used to invite him to so many churches, to so many towns, cities, all over.

So famous, so powerful. And one day, after so many years of preaching, he passed away. And without knowing, neither this preacher knew this, nor anyone else knew this.

There was this poor man that accompanied this preacher without letting him know. This rich person used to follow this preacher wherever he went. He would follow and sit on the ground, on the floor, and he never spoke not even one single word aloud.

Nobody heard his voice. Nobody even acknowledged him. Nobody even knew who this man was and what he was doing there and why he was there.

Nobody. He also passed away. An angel of God, true story, an angel of God went to this priest monk in the monastery.

He went to him and he said, come, I want to show you this place. This priest is telling the story. He said, he took me and we ended up in an absolutely magnificent, gorgeous, stunning, breathtaking place.

And he brought me to this mighty, magnificent mansion. And he stood me right before it. And he said to me, do you know whose mansion this is? He said, immediately that famous preacher came to mind.

And I said, this mansion is none but that mighty and famous preacher. Of course, who else would it be? The angel replied and said to him, you're mistaken. It's not his.

To his shocking surprise, that priest said to the angel, then whose is it? He said, this mansion is that poor man that used to sit at the feet of that preacher. None of you knew that man. He never existed as far as all of you are concerned.

But do you know what that man used to do? Wherever the preacher went, he followed him and he would sit on the floor and silently, silently from within, he would beg the Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, before the preacher talks, at the moment he opens his mouth to talk, let your Holy Spirit speak through him like a double sharper than a double-edged sword to engulf the hearts and to win hearts to you, Lord Jesus. He said, that angel said to the priest, he said, the power of that preacher was that man praying for him all the time. Yet who was known to the world? The preacher who was absent and unknown to the world, the poor man whom nobody cared about.

Self-denial. Can you live where nobody applauds you? Can you accept where nobody recognizes you? Can you live? Can you accept? Can you accept to sit at the back or even deposed, kicked out? Can you accept? What do you think? Preaching about the Lord is fun? Preaching about the Lord is just a lesson I learned, I studied, I researched and now I'm ready. What is this? You need to sit at his feet, you need to embrace the cross, you need to die with the Lord, you need to be there with him at the 10th hour in the heart of his death, in the heart of self-denial because you need to learn Jesus Christ lived for his dad, he never lived for himself not even one single moment while he was on earth.

Everything was his dad and if you talk about preaching that Jesus Christ preached, let me tell you my dear friend, biblically speaking, Christ in heaven, he was silent for 6,000 years and when he when he visited earth, he only spoke for three years and four months. So when you compare three years and four months to six thousand years, it's not even a drop in the ocean. So God was silent much much much more than he spoke.

Man if I sit for two or three hours not even one word uttered by me, I'm gonna explode. What a life and I can't breathe, I need to talk, I need to let it out. Been sitting in the church almost two hours silent, come on bishop finish, no I won't.

Ouch, ouch, oi, oi. John the Baptist started preaching after he lived 30 years in the wilderness, 30 years. We live in air-conditioned homes, very comfortable beds, in winter electric blankets keeping it nice and cozy, in summer air conditioning very nice and cool.

We have food, we have refrigerators, we have microwaves, they're not good for you. We have everything, we have remote controls everywhere, the TV remote control, the garage remote control, even my mouth is a remote control. We have remote controls everywhere.

So life so easy with the press of a button and you're gonna live 30 years in the wilderness and let me see how you're gonna do. What did John the Baptist encounter in his life while living in the desert? How many days and months and years was he hungry? How many attacks did he receive from the enemy? You know in the wilderness it's different, the attacks are different. When somebody spooky appears in the middle of the darkness and you're alone in the desert, where are you gonna run? You'll run out of your skin, that's where you're gonna run.

You will run out of your skin. I don't want to talk, seriously. My beloveds, people will always talk but they don't even know what they're saying.

Well the Lord Jesus said it while on the cross, he said, father forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. If they knew they wouldn't have done it. So people will always talk, people will judge, people will misunderstand 100%.

There is no two ways about it, this is the human fallen nature. But at the end, it is what the Lord had chosen, that's what matters. The Lord, you need to come to know the Lord.

Don't worry about what people think of you or the way they perceive you, with all of the respect to all these people. But the most important thing, you need to come to get to know the Lord Jesus. You are not here for people, you are not here either for yourself, you are here for Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

You need to know him in order to love him and live for him. And the beginning to all of this is, I am not worthy to undo your shoelace. Humility, self-denial, the 10th hour, dead, dead to myself, living for Christ.

Saint Paul in his epistle to the Romans chapter 12 verse 1 to 2, My brethren, I beseech you to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, acceptable to God, your intellectual service. I beseech you to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. There is contradiction in this verse, but if there isn't, to us there is, but biblically, truthfully, spiritually, there is no contradiction.

Because Saint Paul is saying, offer your body as a living sacrifice. Sacrifice means it is dead, living is living. How can it be a living sacrifice? Because when you offer a sacrifice, you slain the animal in the Old Testament, you slain it, that is called a sacrifice.

So when you slain something, you're killing it. So Saint Paul, how can I give my body as a living sacrifice? He says, you can be dead, sacrifice, be dead to the world and be living to Christ. Be deaf to the voice of the world and be all ears open to the voice of the Messiah, the living Messiah.

So you can offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. Die to the world, live for Christ, die to your old Adam and live for the new Adam risen from the dead, all glory to his holy and mighty name. Don't live for yourself, live for the Lord.

This is the beginning to knowing God, in order to loving God, in order to living for God. Because you cannot live with someone unless you love that someone. Can you? Would you marry someone you don't love? I can't stand you guys, but let's get married.

How about that? Why are you doing it? I don't know. That's it, I'm crazy. No, you will choose the one you love because you want to live with the one you love.

Ask the Lord to humble you, ask the Lord to teach you on how to live in his presence unworthy. So today's message, get to know God and be in his holy presence yet unworthy. It is all you, Lord, nothing of me, all glory to you, Lord.

I am nothing but a useless, hopeless servant, Lord. Amen. Let us bow our heads and ask the Lord Jesus for forgiveness, to make us worthy to come forth and receive him in the true body and the true blood, the holy sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

Our good God and full of mercy, our good God and full of mercy, whose grace and mercy is poured upon all, pour my Lord the compassion of the delightfulness of your love upon your servants and again transform them in the hope of renewal to the life of repentance. Renew in them your Holy Spirit by whom they are sealed for the day of salvation. Purify them by your compassion from all flesh and spiritual blemishes and assure the hope of their faith by the aid of your grace and instill the walks of their behavior and the paths of righteousness.

Please them along with the saints in your kingdom by the assurance of the hope of their faith and the adoption as your children and in the joy of your absolving mysteries. Empower them by the aid of your mercies to observe your commandments and fulfill your will to confess, worship and praise your holy name, the Lord of all, Father and Son and Holy Spirit forever. Amen.

May the Lord bless you, may the Lord guide you, protect you and may the Lord teach you on how to be humble in his holy presence, living for him and no longer for ourselves. Amen.